1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to mechanisms designed to facilitate the delivery of tissue holding implants into the human body.
2. Description of the Related Art
During medical procedures such as surgery, it is often necessary to join two or more tissues in approximation until healing has occurred. It is generally important that the doctor be able to perform this task safely and quickly. However, for some procedures, conventional methods of joining tissues can be unsatisfactory.
Septoplastic surgery is an example of such a procedure. During a typical septoplastic procedure, the surgeon will peel the mucosa from each side of the septal cartilage, modify the cartilage as required, and then reattach the mucosa. This is often done with a suture being passed back and forth through the 2 or 3 layers of tissue (mucosa-septum-mucosa or mucosa-mucosa), working alternately through each nostril. This suturing task can sometimes be tedious and time consuming due to swollen tissue and difficult access.
A number of tissue holding means have been devised as an alternative to sutures. For example, a number of one or two-piece tissue holding implants are described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 12/152,361 by Weisel and Pisarnwongs and assigned to the present assignee. These implants employ various means to hold tissues together once they have been successfully implanted. However, some of these implants may be difficult to deliver to the tissues that need to be joined.